3Danny tumbled to the floor with a yelp, his sides burned and stomach muscles strained to recover from the shock. The halfa glared furiously up at his attacker, toxic green eyes glowed dangerously as he let an inhuman growl escape his throat.
The assailant just stared back amused, he sort of regretted tickling the young man. He had been sleeping so peacefully. But then again, that was just all the more reason why it needed to be done, too many times had this situation been reversed and he had been the one on the floor or floating high above the couch. And look on the boy's face was worth more than any punishment that was to come.
Giving a small smirk the attacker patted the spot next to him, gesturing him to come back up. "You may come back on the bed, I promise I will not do that again."
Danny continued to scowl as he floated up off the floor, brushing off invisible dust from his shirt. "For some reason, I don't believe you," He said puffing his cheeks out.
"Oh don't be mad, it was about time for you to get up anyways." His partner pointed out. "Don't you have classes today?"
Stopping mid brush Danny looked up. "Yeah, why?" He watched the other raise a hand and point at the old fashion analog clock that hung on the far wall. "Shit!" It read 7:55 am. School started at 8:30 am. "Why didn't you wake me up!?"
The second person snorted as he stood. "I had just woken up myself, my first thoughts weren't to look at the time." Gracefully, he paced over to the flurry of a person, his walk holding confidence only he could have, and using one muscled arm, grappled the younger around the waist he pulled him flush against his side, snickering as he pushed his lips to the back of Danny's neck. "And besides, having you lying on my lap didn't help convince me to wake you up either."
The halfa snorted and tried to wiggle out of the other's stronghold. "W-walker, I need to go or I'm going to be late again." But it was like the warden either didn't hear his pleas or just ignored them because he continued to cuddle him tightly and rub his cheek into his hair.
This was bad. Letting Walker get away with these kinds of things in the morning was always bad. It almost every time led to him being late for school, having to explain to his teacher why he was running into class 20 minutes late looking like he just had a fight with a tractor and trying all morning to hide the dark red marks around his neck and shoulders until they healed. His friends always got suspicious when he wore turtlenecks to school. He was glad he could lie by telling them he was covering up a scar or wound that had happened that night or that his ice core was making him cold. Tucker and Sam always bought it and never asked further.
The trio had grown apart somewhat over the years, which really hurt if he thought about it too much. He hadn't meant for it to happen but as he had become more accepting of his ghostly half and with his growing connection with the ghost zone and its inhabitants, Danny found himself spending less and less time in the human world. So it was probably inevitable that the outcome would be this. Sam and Tucker were still his good friends but it just isn't the same as it was.
Walker's content 'hmm' broke him out of his musings. "Are you still going to school?" He asked, "Or are ya choosing to stay here and waste the day with me?"
Actually using some strength, Danny managed to turn himself around in Walkers arms to stare him directly in the face. "As much as I wish I could choose, I can't, test today in Math." Booping the ghost on his nose bone with his nose, he pulled away. "I have to get going now or I'm really going to be late," He said. "But I'll stop by after school, ok" He finished with a dazzling smile.
The warden's cheeks almost unnoticeably brushed green. That smile was one of his favorite things about Danny, the way it lights up his entire face, the way his dimples pressed in, giving him a mask of child-like innocents but knowing he was anything but.
Lost in the smile he absent-mindedly hummed. "Mm, ya better."
Quickly untangling himself from Walker, Danny made haste trying to remember where he threw his clothes last night. Considering the situation they had been embroiled in, Walker didn't question why Danny didn't remember where he put them. Sighing he decided to aid in search for his misplaced clothing.
2 minutes later, the 18-year-old was fully clothed and ready to leave. With a chaste goodbye kiss, Danny flew out the door and into the haze of the ghost zone.
With practiced ease Danny quickly found the Fenton portal, turned invisible, and passed through. When he flew past the kitchen he saw his mom, dad, and sister sitting at the table eating what appeared to be… green eggs and normalish looking toast? He felt a little bile start to burn his throat at the thought of what was in any of that food, swallowing it down he phased through the ceiling and into his room. Glancing at the digital clock, he noticed it was now 8:06, he had good 20ish minutes at most. Just enough time to get dressed and inhale a bowl on non-glowing, normal cereal and then fly (really fast) to school.
Relaxing his body, he allowed two blue rings to form around his waist and move and down his body. Exchanging his ethereal body for his human one always felt weird. When he was a ghost he felt light, free, like the particles that his body was made of were just holding onto each other by a thread. While in his human body he felt weighed down, weaker, but it felt warmer and more grounding.
Finding a pair of his usual t-shirt and jeans he lazily tugged them on after removing his PJ's and throwing them into the corner of his room. Which he had gone to Walkers in.
Opening his room door he cautiously he peered down the hall to make sure no one had come upstairs. Feeling safe, he made a bolt down the hallway and into the bathroom. Looking into the mirror he groaned, raven hair was knotted and stood in every direction. Another downside to his human body, it actually required maintenance.
His hair was a disaster, with all the hair-pulling his partner liked to do he was actually surprised he wasn't bald yet. Grabbing his sister's hairbrush, he decided that she wouldn't mind too much and began his battle. He clenched his teeth, letting out a frustrated hiss as the brush once again got caught in his hair.
With a groan he threw the brush on the counter and stormed out of the bathroom. His hair was not totally knot-free but it was good enough for now. Maybe he could get Sam to brush it during L.A.
When he reached the kitchen his mother was the first to greet him. She said a simple good morning before returning back to her 'cooking'. His dad was next, and his response to his son's arrival was above the normal response…way above the normal response. Jack, his dad, bounded over from making his coffee to engulf him in a giant bear hug, lifting him right off of the floor. "Eh Danny boy, good morning!"
Choking on his crushed lungs, which he didn't need but would like to keep anyways, he tried to signal that he couldn't breathe. The large man just laughed joyfully and placed him on the ground then proceeded to slap him on the back proudly. Danny nearly stumbled forward at each blow his dad gave him to his back, it might have been a hardy pat to his father but to him, it felt like Plasmius just kicked him in the spine.
"I hope you slept well tonight," Jack grinned, "because after school we're going bowling!"
The halfa cocked an eyebrow, bowling was normally a celebratory event for them. "How come?" His dad gestured to Jazz.
"To celebrate your sister's transfer to Harvard of course!"
Danny turned to Jazz, a confused look on his face. "You were accepted?" A little bit of hurt in his voice, not giving away how much his chest hurt. He wasn't told this, Jazz always told him first, especially when something big happened.
"Ya." His sister replied monotonously.
The hurt grew. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Finally noticing the off tone in his voice Jazz glanced up, her brother was standing at the opposite side of the table starring down at her. His big blue eye's made it feel like he was staring into her very soul. His older sibling chewed at her lower lip. "Well, I didn't think it was that important."
He scowled. "Right, of course." He ended the conversation there, he knew what she was doing. Turning away from the table he began to walk out of the kitchen, forgetting all about breakfast, he wasn't that hungry anyway.
As he departed his mother and father cast worried looks at themselves and their children. Jazz and Danny had always been close, and it seemed that over the past 3 years they were especially inseparable but since about a month a half ago everything just seemed to go downhill. They never talked casually anymore and any conversation they did have was tense and short-lived. It was like even being within 10 feet of each other would make them both physically ill.
This caused the Fenton parents to get genuinely concerned enough to ask their daughter what was going on. She had only looked at them with an irritated expression before replying with. "Don't worry about it, it's not that important." This just brought up more questions. What wasn't important? Because apparently it was important enough to cause this big of a rip in their relationship.
Danny after leaving the kitchen grabbed his backpack from the living room and made his way out the front door. Slamming it behind him. Grumbling unhappily, he made his way to the side of the house to transform.
"Going ghost," He said quietly as two florescent rings appeared around his waist changing him into his ghost form. Lifting off the ground and turning invisible he left his house and the problems that resided within it behind him.
"I can't believe she is still mad about that!" Hadn't the silent treatment been enough? She made it perfectly clear she was mad, he got the mad part but she was totally over exaggerating! Didn't she think 2 months was a little bit much? Sure she walked in on him and Walker when they were starting to a little touchy-feely in his bedroom but that's all! Danny got an eyeful of her getting it on with some guy last year and he didn't make that big of a deal about it. He just quietly shut the door and ran into his bathroom to vomit than pretended that it never happened. Why couldn't she just do the same?
After that little incident he explained to her that he wasn't being taken advantage of and that he was actually going out with him. But she had responded loudly with. "And you didn't think about telling me you were dating a ghost, a GHOST!?" He was really hurt by those words and from then on apparently whatever filter was on his mouth before was gone.
"What was I going to say, 'Oh Jazz, just out of the blue I thought I'd tell you that I'm seeing Walker, ya, the same ghost that put me in prison all those years ago but it's all good now we worked it out and he won't do it again'!" When he finished his sister was gaping at him.
"You should have told me something, I'm your sister!"
When Danny turned on her his eyes had been glowing. "I'm an adult that can make his own choices, I didn't think it was that important that you knew every detail about my love life." He had sneered in a way that would have made Dan proud. "Besides you don't tell me everything either, especially not about the blonde boy-toy that you keep sneaking in after you think everyone's asleep. You're not that quiet, I can hear you guys from down the hall." After that his sister raised her hand and brought it down on his face, it wasn't anywhere near being a hard slap especially considering what he was used to, but was enough to shock him. He had stared at her wide-eyed for a moment then without meaning too he had bared his teeth at her and growled. He remembered how scared she looked, had she actually thought he was going to attack her? He knew he was a little rougher around the edges than he used to be but he would never even think about hurting his family.
Danny had quickly flown away from that argument, hardly believing he had reacted like that. Later on, that day, after everything cooled down, he apologized profoundly but she wouldn't hear any of it and locked her door on him, not that that could stop him but he got the meaning.
He had to admit what he said was out of line, but he didn't say anything that harsh, at least not harsh enough to earn him months of ire.
He had tried to understand what had made her so angry at him. Was it because he kept it a secret for so long? Was it Walker being a ghost that disturbed her, he hoped not as he was one as well, kind of. It could have been because they were both men, but his sister never showed any negative feelings about homosexuals before so he doubted that was it.
The most likely thing he thought of was the shared history. Their last actual fight was just over 2 years ago before Walker had captured him and the event that started their truce took place.
It was possible she resented the prison warden for what happened during those days. Danny had told her that it hadn't been his fault but she never truly believed him.
The fight had been brutal, he couldn't remember what had started it, he had been exhausted, frustrated, and sleep-deprived so he probably was the one to start it just to release his pent up emotions. But he hadn't realized just how drained he was because he lost, badly.
Beaten, the guards had thrown him in what was probably the deepest darkest cell that they had with the biggest meanest ghosts in the whole prison.
It didn't take long for them to pounce on an injured Danny Phantom.
It started with taunts, the biggest ghost leading them, he talked about how young he was and how he was already failing, dead due to being an idiot, trapped because he was too weak. The others just built on the reactions he had given and continued with the verbal abuse for days, from telling him how he would never belong and that once his secret leaked his parents would tear him apart, that he would watch all his friends and family die while he existed forever, how once they got out they would kill his sister in front him and make him watch the terrible things they explained in detail they would do to her. When he was finally a ball of tears they moved in. Grabbed his arms, pulling him apart, and beating him bloody and broken. He had tried to defend himself.
Danny still had no idea what happened to those prisoners after he had fallen unconscious and he really didn't want to.
All he remembered after that was waking up on a couch in an office with Walker sitting behind a large desk.
After that experience, Danny promised to himself never let that happen again, that he would be stronger and never let himself be victimized like that ever again. That was how their truce was started. Walker taught him The Rules and the secrets of ghostly intimidation while Danny helped out around the prison and followed said rules for the remainder of his 'sentence' (which was thankfully significantly shortened), at least the reasonable ones, to the best of his abilities.
After he had returned from his unfair incarceration and 'community service' after 6 months, Jazz had, of course, wondered where he had been. Sure it was awful, but Walker had made up for it and it wasn't totally his fault either. It was the guards and prisoners.
It still made no sense why she was so angry. There was nothing else he could do. He had apologized and she turned away. He tried to patch things up, she locked her door. He, day after day went up to his sister's door and told her how he wanted her to just talk to him again, she just told him to leave her alone. So eventually he did, one week after the incident he stopped talking to her, stopped looking at her and stopped being around her altogether.
She acted like she didn't care, but he knew she did.
He was her brother and he knew that she couldn't not talk to him for the rest of her life.
Frustrated and chest aching, he landed behind the school and transformed. Shifting his backpack on his shoulders, he entered the school not ready for another 8 hours of hell.
As he settled into his L.A seat he noticed there were only a few kids actually in the class. Only a few nerdy kids sat at their desks doing some sort of AP chem sheet. Looking at the time it was 8:23, the class started in 7 minutes. Tucker and Sam were nowhere to be seen. They were usually here by now, Dash, Kwan and the other Jocks also aren't here so…..that was a bad sign.
Quickly, he bolted out of his seat and down the hallway, the opposite hallway from his locker. In the direction of Sam and Tuckers.
"Shit!" 'Why didn't I think of this before? Didn't I find it suspicious that none of them were in class?' Cursing himself for being so unobservant he forced his legs to run faster. A few stray students didn't even look at him as he ran by them, to them, he was just another student running late for class.
Coming around the last corner towards his friend's lockers, he saw a large circle of people gathered around something.
He heard a bang, like a body hitting a locker than a small cry of pain.
Running up to the large group of people he began pushing people aside, students glaring at him as he shoved past but none of them did anything to stop him. He still wasn't the tallest kid in the school, but he was quickly getting there thanks to his dad gene's finally kicking in and that lessened the people that picked on him considerably. It also helped that he had a fair amount of muscle and scarring that would make most people think twice about calling him any names.
Sam once had even mentioned that he was looking more and more like Dan every day, Danny had reasonably gotten upset when she said that but she told him as long as he only looked like his evil future self it was fine. He even thought about growing a small goatee before he remembered Dan and Vlad both had one and flushed that idea immediately. He came to terms with his new looks surprisingly easily with positive comments from his friends and family, exposure therapy helped quite a bit as well, taking happy pictures of himself helped erase the negative association he had with his own face.
Getting to the center of the circle he came across Dash and some other jock named Jake holding Tucker against a locker. His pants were pulled down, bright blue boxers with white game controllers all over them shown to the world. His friend's face was sporting a bright red mark on one of his cheeks and he was looking down in shame. Dash and Jake stood on either side of him, poking at his glasses and using their combined body weight to keep him from moving.
The raven had to close his eyes briefly as memories of his own 'encounter' fluttered through his mind.
Quickly overcoming the sudden flashback he pushed pasted the last wall of people that stood in his way. "Dash!" He shouted. The large jock immediately turned around, for a second he looked surprised at his appearance but then he smiled devilishly back at him.
"Ha, Fenturds decided to join his friends!" Dash snickered, pulling away from his friend, letting go of the arm he was holding. Jake quickly picked up the slack and looped his arm over Tucker's throat, putting him in a headlock, keeping him helpless and unable to move.
Looking down Danny noticed Sam on the floor leaning against the lockers. She didn't look any better than Tucker, she too sported a large red mark on her face along with a few bruises on her forearms that Tucker didn't have as well as holding an arm around her ribs. Even from 10 feet away, he could see the rage burning in her violet eye and grit teeth. He knows she wishes she could have curb-stomped him, he knows she could have, but the threat of their secret being revealed stopped her.
Why did they have to put up with so much just for him? It was selfish of him to expect that of them.
Averting his eyes away from Sam, he glanced up to meet Dash's eyes. Dark blue crashed with electric blue as they stared at each other. "What's the problem today Dash?"
"Shit for brains here." He tilted his head casually to Tucker. "Refused to provide me with today's completed homework and instead I got excuses. 'I was out of town for a wedding' blah blah blah. Listen, if I don't keep my grades high enough, the university I'm accepted to will drop my scholarship, and I won't let you dweebs ruin that for me."
Danny gave him a blank stare. No matter how much he wanted to punch in him in his stupid face and watch him pick his teeth off the ground, he needed to keep calm. 'It's scarier when you don't react at all, don't let them know they got to you.' Walker had once told him. "So how does punching my friends help you keep up your grades, are you so inept that you can't do it yourself?" Another lesson Walker taught him. 'Take possession of what is yours and what you care about, and let everyone know not to touch it and why.
Dash frowned at his response, "It will teach him not to fuck up and forget again."
"Just do it yourself and you wouldn't have this problem but it doesn't matter anyway, once you leave this high school, the poor university that picked you up is going to see the kind of dumb sack you are and drop you like a -"
That earned him a punch to the face, but when he threw the first punch Danny was already prepared and had brought his forearm up to deflect. "Oh, you're gonna be sorry you said that." He aimed another punch but Danny ducked away easily.
"Good luck trying to get me to apologize." He snarked back, giving the fist that flew in an inch from his face a good shove, unbalancing him and sending Dash stumbling back a few steps. Following up before Dash could fully recover, Danny got a good human strength uppercut in, sending his opponent back clutching his face.
Danny was hoping that would have taken him out of the fight or at least got him to back down, but when was he ever that lucky.
Grunting, the larger man threw his entire body at Danny, tackling him to the floor. Danny knew a lot of fights ended up on the floor at some point but he didn't predict Dash to psychically tackle him to the floor like he just did. The only thing saving his skull from smashing on the floor was his reflexes. As soon as Dash slammed into his stomach he curled around his body and latched on so when he hit the floor his head wasn't going to whip back.
The struggle on the floor was not very impressive, without using his ghost powers, it was like a slap fight. Danny and Dash pushing and pulling against each other and getting in hits when they can.
"How about that apology before you lose your teeth?" The blonde sneered, pushing the raven's face into the floor. The jock laughed as he saw his victim struggled against him trying to do something. While Danny's focus briefly went elsewhere, Dash took the opportunity to get a hit on the other's open face.
When the fist met his cheekbone Danny eyes watered, though practice allowed him to ignore it and continue to think clearly. Finally freeing his leg by bringing it up to his chest, he brought his leg up and under Dash's body and planted his foot roughly on his sternum. Straightening his leg, he pushed the blond off of him.
Standing up the halfa gently touched his face with his fingertips, he matched his friends now. Looking down at his dusty pants (school hallways are disgusting) he quietly sighed. 'Why am I ending up on the floor so often? I'm not some kind of floor cleaner.'
Leaving that thought to another time, he glanced over to Dash as he laid on the floor a good 5 feet away. The jock was incapacitated across the floor, groaning and holding the back of his head. People had moved out of the way but none came to help him.
Danny mumbled to himself. "Hm, must have hit his head." Keeping his eyes locked on Dash he slowly paced over.
"So Dash." He stood directly above the person who made school so much more miserable for so many people. This was his chance to end it for good. With one last glance over his shoulder to his injured friends, he made up his mind. "What was that about my teeth?" Lifting the same foot he used to push the jock off of him, he placed his heel directly on the spot were kicked him before.
The reaction was instant, Dash grabbed at Danny's ankle and attempted to remove the foot from his chest. Seeing Dash's struggle, he applied more pressure to get the point out to him, give up.
Dash cried out as he felt the heel dig into his sore chest.
The halfa new he didn't break anything when he kicked him, he would just have a really nasty bruise later. But after Dash hit his head on the hard ceramic floor he couldn't promise no serious injuries. He was kinda worried but Dash was a football player surely he was used to head injures by now.
"Looks like you gotta couple loose ones yourself." Bending down a little so that he could look Dash in the eye Danny spoke. "Why did you really attack Tucker?"
Dash just continued to struggle, trying to remove the foot that kept him pinned on the floor to no avail.
"We didn't have any big homework assignments on Friday and I doubt you would risk expulsion over that anyways."
Dash's eye's narrowed as he struggles lessened, he was listening now. 'Gotcha.' he thought. It was going to be cruel, and he was going to feel guilty for a long time but a plain old beat down wasn't going to work on this blockhead.
"So Baxter, tell me what made you go all 'Hulk smash' on my friends?"
"Get the hell off me." 'Perfect.'
"So having girlfriend issues?"
Nothing.
"Bad test mark?"
A low growl.
"Hm, probably something closer to home to invoke a reaction like this out of you. What about family problems? Dad's not loving mom how he's supposed to?" Oh Clockwork, it felt so bad to bring up, even if it was Dash.
"Let me go, Fenton." Dash's voice was low and dangerous. Danny's face showed neither pleasure nor anger.
"Your home life is pretty shit isn't it?" He kept his voice low, barely above a whisper so only he and Dash could understand. "Your father takes his bad days out on your mother, and she takes bad days out on you, so you take your bad days out on those weaker than you instead of getting help, it's just a never-ending cycle."
"Shut the FUCK up, Fenton!" The blond thrashed wildly underfoot, inhuman strength was the only thing keeping him down. "What do you know?!"
He smiled sadly. "Nothing, nothing at all." Removing his foot he took a step back, watching as Dash shuffled backward away from him. "I hope you think twice about going after my friends again."
Dash just stared on in fear as Fenton began to walk forward again. His smile kind. "And instead of wasting your energy on something that won't solve anything, focus on finding ways to fix it, then you might get somewhere." Spinning on his heel he turned and walked away.
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. They just stared as he walked over to Jake and just calmly pulled Tucker away from him, waiting for him to pull himself together then continued over to help pull Sam up from the floor.
As the three friends walked away, students finally began to disperse and chatting picked up again. The tallest of the 3 had his arms around both of his friend's waist leading them to the nurse's office.
Not one person moved to stop them on their way there.
Carefully leading his friends down the hallway, Danny made sure to support them and walk slowly. Who knows how many unseen injures they had.
Sam and Tucker looked over themselves and Danny as they moved, the old song and dance. He kept his hands in the dip of their backs to apply supportive pressure and to keep them moving. Blue eyes trailed along the floor, the guilt beginning to bubble inside him already.
"Danny." Sam spoke softly. "Are you ok?"
Danny glanced over and raised his brow. "Yeah, why?"
When she opened her mouth to respond the dark skin boy beat her to it.
"Dude that was totally cool, did you see how scared Dash looked? Serves him right!" He swung his arm across Danny's shoulder with a wince and laughed. "It was like you read him like a book, what did you say man?"
Sam looked at her friend's smiling face. Tucker could be such an idiot, but he brings up a good question. "Why did you do that? It looked kinda, I don't know, intense?"
"I- I just couldn't take it anymore. He always takes his problems out on everyone around him and I was hoping he would finally stop. He was going too far this time! I just remembered what walker taught me and just went off I guess."
Suddenly they all stopped. Tucker and Sam falling away from his hands. 'Oops. Oh well here we go.'
"WHAT!?" Both of them shouted, Tucker starred wide-eyed and Sam just looked really surprised.
"He taught you?! I know you guys have some kind of ceasefire going on but should you really be spending any amount of time with him?" Sam asked sounding bewildered.
Scratching the back of his neck he continued. "Ya, since then I've kinda been training with Walker at the prison." Silence. "Just acting like his assistant you know…" Silence. "I even helped get rid of a few of the more ridiculous laws, did you know you can take contraband into the ghost zone now? Ahaha, with the right paperwork of course….guys?"
"Walker?" Tucker sputtered, being the first one to take in and digest this information. While Sam still stood there chewing on it. "As in the giant, psychotic, evil prison warden who overshadowed half the town and tried to lock you up and kill you multiple times?"
Danny seemed to contemplate the answer for a moment before smiling innocently. "Yup."
"Whyyyy?"
He shrugged. "I don't know really, he saved me from a really bad situation a while ago and I've found out he isn't really all that bad." The half-ghost looked down, finding the tops of his shoes more interesting than looking at his friend's faces. "After you get past all those rules and that strict attitude, he is a pretty cool guy."
Finally being able to look back up at his friends he almost cringed away.
The Goth suddenly had a stern look on her face. "Is that where you've been disappearing too?"
"Maybe." He looked at Sam. She looked really disappointed in him.
"So you've been lying to us."
Danny jerked forward. "No, Sam it's not-." He tried to explain.
"-So all those times you told us you were busy patrolling or with your parents, you were with- with Walker? Why would you not tell us?" She stared at Danny, black-outlined eyes brimming with tears. "Don't you trust us anymore?"
"Sam, you don't understand!" He begged.
Sam shook her head. "No, YOU don't understand! You've been changing Danny and not in a good way!" She gestured down the hallway in the direction they came from. "What you did back there did not feel like you. You could have blown your identity and you could have seriously hurt Dash, what if he has a concussion, Danny?"
"He was hurting you guys! What was I supposed to? You guys put yourselves on the line for me all the time, I couldn't just stand there and do nothing again." Danny's voice was shaky, pleading for them to understand.
Sam gabbed a finger at him, "You didn't need to go that far, I don't know what Walker did to you but- ."
"He hasn't done anything to me!" He snapped.
"Then what was that back there?"
Danny huffed. "I couldn't stand by and watch him hurt you two again. I hoped that it would give him a wake-up call to get himself some help."
"Great, and what about patrols, the lying, and Walker of all ghosts." She put her hands on her hips and leaned in. "We've hardly gone on patrol together in months and when we do it's so short we are back by 1 am."
Sighing he ran his hands through his hair, while everything was thrown out into the open he might as well admit to something. "The reason I don't want you guys patrolling with me anymore is that," he paused thinking about the best way to put it, "because it's been getting kinda rough out there. As I've gotten stronger, other, stronger ghosts have taken notice and have been challenging me for Amity Park. I'm part ghost so if I'm cut in half I won't die, but you guys. You'll die." He stared up at them with glassy eyes, he was barring all his deepest fears in front of them in the middle of their high school hallway, what a day. "You haven't seen me pull myself together after having my arm and leg ripped from my body or having to forcibly realign my femur that is sticking out of my thigh." He stepped away from his friends and started down the hallway. "That is the reason I don't take you on night patrols anymore, guys it's not like I don't trust you, I do, I don't tell you because I don't want you to worry and I don't want you getting hurt. I hope you can understand where I'm coming from."
He received no response and heard no footsteps behind him so he knew he wasn't being followed. Hollow eyes starring forward he focused on getting to class.